Toll rises as villages reveal their dead

February 10, 2009 — 12.00am

TOWNS have been declared crime scenes, and the death toll in Victoria's bushfires could top 200 as the grisly search for bodies continues in communities that were wiped out.

At 7.15am this morning the death toll had reached 173 but that figure was certain to climb as identification experts were called in to take over the grim task of recovering bodies from volunteer firefighters.

More than 750 homes have been destroyed, 330,000 hectares have been burnt out and more than 52 fires were listed as still burning throughout the state yesterday.

The death toll has risen by seven since 2am, with three more bodies found at the wiped-out town of Marysville, taking the toll there to 15, and four more bodies at Strathewen, where the toll there is now 30.

It was impossible to tell how many people were missing, authorities said. One insurance company said the fires could cost $500 million.

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Firefighters will again have their hands full today as southerly winds pick up in central, northeast and eastern Victoria with little rain in sight as 24 fires continue to rage.

The Kinglake area remains the worst hit. A fierce 220,000 hectare firestorm ripped through the region, killing 106 people and destroying more than 550 homes. At least 35 residents from the township of Kinglake and nine from Kinglake West were killed, and more deaths are expected.

The once idyllic communities of Kinglake, Strathewen and Marysville are little more than collections of ash and charcoal, with a few burnt-out house frames standing limp amid charred corrugated iron.

Only three of the Strathewen hamlet's 40 houses were still standing.

Nearby Marysville was annihilated. The town was declared a crime scene as the Victorian Police chief commissioner, Christine Nixon, confirmed some fires had been deliberately lit. She said a taskforce would be set up to investigate arson.

The Churchill fire in Gippsland, which police have confirmed was deliberately lit, had killed at least 19 people, including nine in Callignee.

The 35,000-hectare blaze broke through containment lines earlier in the day and hit the town of Churchill, which is also a crime scene, and was threatening nearby Yarram.

In the north of the state, fire around Dederang had escalated significantly late yesterday, also threatening the towns of Beechworth and Yackandandah.

Country Fire Authority volunteers have been traumatised by many of their gruesome discoveries, and the job of searching for bodies has been taken over by specialised police disaster victim identification teams.

Burnt cars that became tombs lined bush roads in the central highlands, and volunteers were recovering the charred remains of friends and colleagues.

Twenty serious burns patients were admitted to The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne in 24 hours, all with burns to more than 30 per cent of their bodies.

Complicated emergency relief operations are under way throughout the state, with an extensive exercise at Whittlesea that is serving survivors from Kinglake and its environs.

As refugees flooded down the mountain from Kinglake and surrounding townships into Whittlesea, emergency relief workers headed the other way, taking desperately needed food, water and fuel supplies to those who remained behind.

"That's the second phase of the operation," said a CFA spokesman, Dave Wolf. "First it's been making the area safe for firefighters to work in but also getting supplies and resources to people on the mountain who decided to stay and protect their properties."

Tent cities have been set up in areas such as nearby Yea, and caravans, community halls and the houses of strangers have become homes to thousands of newly homeless Victorians.

The Queen expressed her shock at the devastating bushfires in a message to Australia.

"I was shocked and saddened to learn of the terrible toll being exacted by the fires this weekend," she said in a statement issued by Buckingham Palace.

"I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of all those who have died, and my deep sympathy to the many that have lost their homes in this disaster."